NEWPORT CITY - Physician assisted suicide, known as the Death with Dignity Bill, continues to be a hot button issue in Vermont.
Rep. Duncan Kilmartin of Newport City said during Monday's Legislative Breakfast that some lawmakers are calling the bill physician prescribed suicide, because physicians are ones who will give the "lethal cocktail."
"Courageous, thoughtful people in the senate and the prayers of many defeated the forces and big money from outside Vermont who want to make doctors become partners to suicide with the blessing and intervention of the State of Vermont," said Kilmartin said. "Make no mistake about it, the original bill was fueled by outside money, some of it landing right here in Orleans County."
Kilmartin, who said he can't predict what will happen in the House, said the bill that the Senate sent over preserves patient end of life choices and their privacy without the state telling the patients how to end their lives.

For more on this story, read Tuesday's edition of the Newport Daily Express for Feb. 26, 2013.